Water: Tide Comes In, Tide Goes Out

Subject:  Seashore and black cliffs

Title:  Unknown

Artist:  A.K.O , signed lower right

Date:  unknown

Media:  Oil on canvas

Size:  48″ x 24″

Frame:  Carved wood painted black

This is a favorite of mine. The restless ocean meets the impassive cliffs on the water-swept beach. The tide comes in, and the tide goes out.

The waves are thick impasto. Their impact stands out. Some places show ocean spray against the rocks. The cliffs continue into the out-of-focus distance.

The verdant green grass inland is inviting. The sand and seaweed make moist beach colors, and you realize this artist has seen this with true eyes.

I don’t know the artist. I don’t know if it is a “starving artist.” I do know this is a fine work of art, and I love to look into it.

Is this location the black cliffs of Cornwell?

water: a boy and his dog

Subject:  Boy and Dog Looking Out to Sea

Title:  Unknown

Artist:  D. Gillander

Date:  Unknown, c. mid to late 20^th century

Size: 20″ x 24″

Media:  Paint on canvas

A boy and his dog is a classic theme.  A dog is man’s best friend.  This duo touches the memory and emotions.

I can’t quite remember why this painting clicks in my head.  It seems familiar.  I think it is using the style and colors of an illustrator from the 1960s or 70s.  Maybe it’s Joan Walsh Anglund, b. 1926.

Another possibility might be the illustrator Susan Perl, 1922-1983.

It is not hard to find results for an internet search for, “painting boy dog sea.”  Turns out to be a popular subject, and the styles are quite diverse.  There is also a webpage, wallpaperboat.com/sad-boy-wallpapers.

The oldest one I found is “Outward Bound (The Stay at Homes/Looking Out to Sea),” a story illustration for Ladies’ Home Journal, by Norman Rockwell in October 1927.  According to the Norman Rockwell Museum, “In the summer of 1912, Rockwell spent three months studying painting with Charles Hawthorne in Provinctown, Massachusettes. Hawthorne had studied plein air painting (painting out-of-doors) with William Merritt Chase. In Rockwell’s painterly treatment of the roofs, waves, trees, grass and man’s trousers, we see the influence of Chase’s impressionistic style.” (1)

This painting is signed D. Gillander in the lower right corner.  I am confident that this is not the Canadian artist David Gillanders, b. 1968.  I think the artist could be a local hobbyist, since the painting was purchased at a thrift store for less than $10 and is unframed.

This is a baby blue painting of a boy and his dog at the end of the pier.  They are looking into the distance, into the sea and sky, into the horizon.  Are they longing to leave?  Are they waiting for someone to return?  A young person might stare into the future with wistful hope.  Men sail the wide ocean for fortune and adventure. To test themselves and to make their reputations.  A young person might wish to escape his dull village.  This boy is ready with his sailor’s uniform.

He faces more than water.  The fishing boat is headed away.  It’s nets are poised to capture fish.  On the far distant shore, a building points into the sky.  Is it a lighthouse or a church?  It points up to a single bird in heaven.  Most of this painting is a troubled cloudy sky.

Could this sea bird refer to older paintings of the dove of the Holy Ghost descending to bless the young Son beginning His earthly ministry?  The bird is certainly in the center of the composition.  It flies over the cross-shaped mast of the fishing boat.  These symbols are not unknown to the Christian eye.

The writing on the back of this stretched canvas says, “FLS 1143,” and “HOB $75.”

If you would like to own a custom painting of you and your dog on a dock, it costs $55 from unifury.com.  (2)

Sources:

1. Rockwell’s Outward Bound.  https://prints.nrm.org/detail/281623/rockwell-outward-bound-the-stay-at-homes-looking-out-to-sea-1927
2. Unifury custom art. https://unifury.com/products/dog-2271

water: tall ship, tall tale

Subject:  Sailing Ship on the Sea

Title:  Unknown

Artist:  Norman Walker, signed lower right

Date:  possibly c. 1970s

Media:  Oil on board

Size:  8” x 10”

Frame:  Black and Gold, marked Hecho En Mexico

This ship is sailing the ocean blue.  It leans into the white capped waves. It’s so tall we can’t see the top.  We can’t see the flags.  It is armed with cannon along the white stripe on the black hull.  No land is in sight.

This brings to mind the romance and danger of the sailing age.  Are there pirates?  Is the cargo gold?  Passengers, troops, convicts, or slaves?

This tall ship could be a clipper (1775-1880s), or it could be a Blackwall frigate (1830-1870s). Not being a nautical expert, I’ll wait for someone else to tell.  Blackwall frigates had black hulls with a white stripe (1).  Frigates are built for speed and maneuverability, and clippers are even faster.  They could have more than 28 cannons for defense.   English frigates brought trade and tea from India and China by way of the Cape of Good Hope.

The Madagascar, the second Blackwall frigate, went missing in 1853.  It was transporting cargo from Australia to London.  It was loaded with wool, rice, 110 passengers and two tonnes of gold. Before the ship left the dock, Melborne police boarded and arrested several escaped convicts–bushrangers.  The Madagascar left port and was never seen again.  This mystery is behind many sea stories and tall tales. One-eighth share in the Madagascar was held by William Harrison Walker (2).

This oil painting is signed by Norman Walker.  He is a mystery to internet searches.  Who is he?  When did he paint?  Where?  Why did he disappear?

It is not hard to find maritime paintings by Norman Walker.  Many of them are versions of this very ship.  Many of them are larger, and can be sold for up to $300.00.

This painting is decorative wall art from the 1970s, said art expert Nora (3.)  “Most were sold through ‘starving artist’ shows held in motels at that time and through furniture stores. The marine tall ship painting is signed Norman Walker. These are not highly listed artists.” (3)

Gaze at this art on your wall and imagine the spray of salt sea air and the wind in your hair.  Be transported, but don’t get lost.

Sources:

1. Blackwall frigate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwall_frigate
2. Madagascar frigate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madagascar_(1837_ship)
3. Just Answer Antiques. https://www.justanswer.com/antiques/as0bi-oil-paintings-know.html

The Maiden, The Mountain

The Swiss Alps are awesome and beautiful.  Their imposing appearance challenges the mountaineer and the artist.

This pair of hand-tinted etchings are exquisite up close, but from a distance can be overlooked as maybe some souvenir postcards.  Our love for the mountains can also bring ubiquity.

Hans Frey made a lot of mountain pictures, as you can see on this website:

https://sites.google.com/site/cataloguespolygraphicum/hans-frey

In fact, the picture above is among the smaller ones near the end.  My first guess of the subject is the Dents du Midi, “teeth of noon,” near Lake Geneva, but I’m not so sure.

Frey either lived 1877-1935 or 1900-1983, in Munich, Switzerland, or Austria.  Some of his works were sold at Paul H. Wilde, Etchings, Prints, Fine Framing, 2427 Broadway, New York.  Neither of these have a gallery mark on the back.

The other of these aquatints is not represented on that website, but you can find one like it, “eiger.moench.jungfrau.” It is five up from the mass of tiny mountains at the bottom.

Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau are peaks in the Alps.  This northern wall is, “one of the most distinctive sights of the Swiss Alps.” [Wikipedia.]  After trains and a tunnel, this area became an enticing vacation spot.  In 2001, it was named a World Heritage Site.

Jungfrau is a maiden, a virgin, lovely but imposing.  Six Swiss Army recruits died climbing Jungfrau in an avalanche in 2007.

Mountain Range: Orange Ya Glad?

This is a color-rich scene with mountains in the background.  This picture by Lee makes me think of scenic painting for the stage.  An actor could enter stage left, or maybe an opera star could sing in front of the flat bush props.

Each element is thoughtfully painted with vibrant hues.  It’s almost like paper doll pieces cut out and arranged individually.  Here’s a tree.  Here’s a bush.  Here’s a rock.  They overlap each other.

The lake gleams, but is not reflecting the mountain or plants.  It’s hardly reflecting the sky. Is it dawn or dusk?  The orange light of the sky doesn’t affect what we see.

All the parts form something that grabs my attention.  I hope Lee continues to paint and study color, because there is definitely something interesting about the fearless combinations here.  Look at the foreground ground:  a lot of paints used in an appealing but primitive way.  Beautiful dirt.

This thrift-store picture was painted by Lee on canvas over masonite.

Charles In Charge, or Not

Not  a coin, not a medallion—what is it?  It caught my eye at the thrift store.  It’s sort of bubblegum colored, but made out of a hard resin.

Solving a mystery is fun.  The first clue is the writing around the edge: Latin, which translates, “Charles – the second – of God – a favorite – Sovereign – Britain – France – and Ireland – King – Sure – Defender.”

This is the Great Seal of the Realm.  At least one side of it.  I always imagined kingly documents were sealed with something the size of a signet ring.  This is more than five inches across.  Apparently some seals were this big, put inside a box that dangled from the document.

Pennsylvania only wishes they had one of these.  Their charter was given by King Charles II to William Penn in 1681.  That document used to have a seal like this, but green.  They lost it.  [1]

Looking at the beautiful artwork, we see Charles II himself:

“The King on horseback …, his head uncovered, …, his hair flowing over his shoulders and back. The King is clad in armour with a cloak fastened over his right shoulder and flying behind his back, and is riding with single curb rein; in his right hand is a straight sword …, his foot spurred and placed in the stirrup. The horse is rearing and is harnessed with bridle, saddle, saddle-cloth, and a strap passing round the whole length of its body; from behind the saddle fall three straps across the flanks of the horse hanging almost perpendicularly towards the ground.” [2]

Where is he going?  The bridge below the horse is London Bridge, after it was “falling down,” but before the 1666 Great Fire of London.  The scene shows London past the River Thames from Southwark.  The big buildings are churches. Under the stallion’s belly is “old” St. Paul’s Cathedral before it was destroyed in the fire.

Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre would have appeared on the near shore under his foot, except it had been closed by the Puritans along with all the other theatres.

Charles II (sort of) became king when his father Charles I was executed after the English Civil War.

In 1649, Scotland proclaimed him king, but England was led by Oliver Cromwell.  Charles II was defeated by Cromwell in 1651, and fled to Europe for 9 years.

After Cromwell died, Charles II returned to England on his 30th birthday 29 May 1660, and became king.  He tried to enact religious freedoms, i.e. tolerate the Catholics.

He was known as the Merry Monarch for the hedonism of his court.  The country returned to normal after Cromwell’s Puritan rule.  He had no children–except 12 illegitimate children by seven mistresses.  Princess Diana is descended from two of his illegitimate sons, and Prince William could become the first monarch descended from Charles II.

He was nicknamed “Old Rowley,” after one of his stallions.

Earl John Wilmot said,

 “We have a pretty witty king,

Whose word no man relies on,

He never said a foolish thing,

And never did a wise one”

Charles II responded, “That’s true, for my words are my own, but my actions are those of my ministers.”

During his reign:

1660  Restoration (of monarchy from restrictive Puritan republic.)  Also, Restoration Comedies were cynical, bawdy and sharp plays.

1665  Great Plague of London

1666  Great Fire of London

1681  Gave land to Wm. Penn to pay a debt.  That became Pennsylvania and Delaware.

Charles II was a contemporary of scientists Robert Boyle and Sir Isaac Newton, and of architect Sir Christopher Wren.  [3]

His seal half-way looked like this reproduction. There would have been a design on the other side too.  This replica was probably made by The British Museum Cast Service in the 1970s.  Very detailed for a fake piece of history!

 

Sources:

1  http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/portal/communities/documents/1681-1776/pennsylvania-charter.html

2  SOURCE: Public Records Office. United Kingdom.  http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/portal/communities/documents/1681-1776/pennsylvania-charter.html

3  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_II_of_England

 

 

 

 

 

Stripes and Layers

Stripes and layers.

Bones, flesh and skin; bones, flesh and skin.

Wood, plaster, paint; wood, canvas and paint—

The makeup of this life

Repeated layer on layer

Inside and out.

 

The bones are not enough;

Flesh won’t do.

Surface is all.  Deep surface.

It is a thing of thin thickness.

We know what lies beneath the

Stripes and layers.

 

Support is not enough;

Muscle won’t do.

Elan is all.

 

This is a song dragged from Lethe’s borders.

This is about three things:

Soul, body and spirit.

This is about three stripes of all:

Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

This is.

Mountain Range: Green, Green Grass

Colors!  Blue Sky, Blue Water!  Green Leaves, Gray Mountains!

It’s not unusual to have white-topped peaks, but the white tree limbs set this artwork apart.  The power of this painting is simple:  colors and shapes—Simple.

Deceptively simple.  At first glace, it’s naïve art, folk art.  Like Grandma Moses.  Maybe MT (artist’s signature, lower left) is self-trained.  Maybe, but MT knows more than you think.  The elements are composed.  The tree branches are actually like nature.

The sky and the mountains are not like nature.  This is a different kind of mountain painting.  The foreground takes precedence over the background.  The mountains are not the focus, not the star of the picture.  The mountains are backdrop to lush green life.

The folk artist can tell you:  what matters is growing in dirt beside the stream. The unscalable peaks are far off.  They are a wonderful and soaring ideal, but they are blank and featureless.  All we know and love is here with us.